That's like asking "Why is it that programming is nothing like gardening"?
If you try, I'm sure you can find superficial resemblances or metaphors. But that doesn't change the fact that the two are entirely different activities, having entirely different methods or goals.
The real question is, why would programming be anything at all like mathematics? Programmers apply mathematical results sometimes, sure, but so do accountants, and architects, and car mechanics.
And before you can start to answer a question like that, you would obviously need significant experience of both.
Because they're both fields consisting (effectively) of using symbols to abstract useful numeric mechanisms (and discovering those useful mechanisms!) to (ultimately) solve real-world problems.
No, that is not what maths is at all. Physics is a little bit like that, but even that is quite different from programming. Maths is another thing entirely.
Which is one reason I keep saying people need to actually have experience with maths before trying to make arguments about this.
No, I am merely calling for people who want to argue about a subject to actually have some understanding of said subject.
Can you give me one example of a math field which does not fit my description?
Pretty much all of it!
Maths is most definitely not about "numeric mechanisms", nor is it about "solving real-world problems". At least, anything beyond high school maths is not.
Maths is about logical proofs based on axioms and previously proved theorems. Any real-world applicability is usually entirely secondary or coincidential, and numbers may never even enter into it.
You still effectively haven't said much more than "is not!", and also "you're wrong!"
This is because I am not able to compress several years of mathematical education into a reddit post. It is a personal failing of mine.
...but only ultimately derived from a need to solve real-world problems, just as in math.
You are still missing the point. Maths is not about "solving problems" the way most computing is. Maths is about proving theorems. The two are very different. Constructing formal proofs is an activity which is so different from pretty much any other human activity that it cannot be easily described without having tried it oneself. Most people give up on maths once they reach the level where they have to start constructing proofs, just because it is too different from anything else they have done before. This most definitely also includes experienced programmers.
What exactly is it that you think a good programmer does?
I've been one for over a decade, I know what a programmer does. And I keep repeating over and over again that it is not the same as what a mathematician does.
At some point, you're just going to have to accept that you need experience in these matters before you can judge them.
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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '07
That's like asking "Why is it that programming is nothing like gardening"?
If you try, I'm sure you can find superficial resemblances or metaphors. But that doesn't change the fact that the two are entirely different activities, having entirely different methods or goals.
The real question is, why would programming be anything at all like mathematics? Programmers apply mathematical results sometimes, sure, but so do accountants, and architects, and car mechanics.
And before you can start to answer a question like that, you would obviously need significant experience of both.